With the holiday season over, the tourists have gone home and New York is a lot less crowded—which means there’s no better time to come visit and take in a blockbuster museum exhibition. No exhibit currently on view is more rooted in the city than the Museum of Modern Art’s Abstract Expressionist New York, a sweeping survey that showcases the generation of artists who made New York City the center of the international art world in the 1950s. Several of the biggest names in twentieth-century art appear in the show, such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, and Lee Krasner, among others.
These artists’ vast, color-saturated canvases can be an ideal antidote to a gray winter day, so you really owe it to yourself to come see them in person, and not reproduced in the pages of a book or online.
Most art lovers associate the Abstract Expressionist movement almost exclusively with painting. But what’s revelatory about the MoMA show is that it includes sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and archival materials that demonstrate how the movement encompassed several diverse media, while also giving viewers a historical context for what this group of artists accomplished. Taken entire, Abstract Expressionist New York spreads out over several floors of MoMA—so you may just want to plan not one but two or maybe even three visits to appreciate the whole thing.
Abstract Expressionist New York runs through April 25, 2011. MoMA is located in Manhattan in the neighborhood of Midtown West, at 11 West 53rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, where it is convenient to several subway and bus lines.
New York Habitat has a number of apartments available in winter and early spring 2011. We will help you find apartments in Midtown West (conveniently close to MoMA), or an accommodation down in Greenwich Village or the West Village, where some of the most famous Abstract Expressionists lived, worked, and drank. Here are a few to get you started on your search:
– a furnished studio apartment in Midtown East, New York (NY-14359) is a short walk or one subway stop away from the Museum of Modern Art, which means you can arrive early and beat the lines out front. The apartment is on the first floor of a recently renovated pre-war brownstone, so you’ll enjoy plenty of period character in addition to modern-day amenities like a wall-mounted flat-screen TV and Internet access in every room.
– This 1-bedroom rental in Greenwich Village, New York (NY-8429) is located at 14th Street & 7th Avenue, an area with a rich history of bohemian artistic and cultural associations. In the present day, meanwhile, scores of art galleries are flourishing just a few blocks of your doorstep. In addition to its choice location, the apartment has a deck and a home theater system.
– Across town, meanwhile, a luxury 1-bedroom rental in Midtown West, New York (NY-10890) puts you just to the west of MoMA, as well as close to Times Square and the Theater District. This is a doorman building with an elevator, gym, and laundry, which means that quite a few of your needs are taken care of all under one roof.
Let us know what you think. Are Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock two of your artistic heroes? Or are they just a tiny bit overrated? Feel free to share your comments below.
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